I can see I didn’t post for a few days and, unfortunately, I think I may need to lower the frequency of my posts. In a way it’s easier to post every day than just once in a while, as that changes the focus: when I only post every couple days it’s like doing a sum up of what happened recently, which is different from recording pretty much every single thing that I consider may help others understand how I think and feel, as an autistic person; however, since I started doing my digital art it’s difficult for me to focus on the blog and I guess it may need to stay like this for a bit, although I do hope for some meaningful posts in the future.

I continue my Christmas job in a supermarket, I’m off today but I’ll be back tomorrow. I am surprised how well I cope when it gets busy – as a client I hate busy supermarkets, it happened to me a few times in the past that I left without getting what I needed as I just couldn’t cope with the noise and so many people. However, when I work, I absolutely love it: I can’t hear any noise and I ignore people, unless they approach me, I focus on one thing only: creating order out of chaos and making shelves look as organised as possible. I actually regret that I don’t have a shift on Christmas Eve – I am really curious to see how I would cope.

Clients sometimes approach me and ask where they can find certain items and, as it’s not a supermarket where I normally shop, I’m not familiar with it, but I try to help, although a few times, when client asked for things that I never use, I told them we probably don’t have it in stock. I guess it’s my way of prioritising: I don’t use that so they also don’t need it, simple, isn’t it? I’m being sarcastic here, of course.

It’s sometimes difficult to come up with the right answer as the questions I’m being asked can be tricky but I came up with the idea that I should start with ‘Oh, I’m sorry’ pronounce slowly – this gives me a bit of time to assess situation instead of just saying whatever comes to my mind.

I did say to one client though that she can get porchini mushrooms in the Polish shop in town but I guess that wasn’t the worst thing that could happen? I was trying to be genuinely helpful and porchini is not something that you can see in a supermarket, although I must say I never looked for it there because I just buy it in Polish shop instead. Oh well…

The strangest situation I faced was, when a man a bit shorter than me came up and asked me to extend my arm. He wasn’t exactly short, maybe two inches shorter than me, but possibly as a man he felt bad about his height. I did have this idea he wants to ask me to reach for an item from a shelf for him but I didn’t know how to ask about it so I was just standing there with my arm extended like if I was playing in a Christmas panto, but thankfully he quickly said ‘oh yes, your arm is longer than mine, so can you please…’ and then he just said what he wanted. And I thought, obviously my arm is longer, because I’m taller, but I didn’t say that as I thought it could be considered rude. It’s funny though that telling people that they’re short it considered rude, but telling people they’re tall it’s ok. Possibly tall men don’t have an issue with that but we, tall girls, don’t usually want to be reminded about our height.

I’m having a day off today and there is work being done in my downstairs neighbours flat – it’s surprising that just a few minutes of fire could cause so much trouble that neighbours have to be moved. My kitchen only stopped smelling of smoke a few weeks ago. I’m now however a bit concerned thinking that I’ll have to leave the flat for a few weeks at a time not knowing what is happening with it. Perhaps I should make friends with the neighbours, when they are back, and give them a spare key? It’s not something that I’d normally do though.

Oh, and why I titled my post ‘mulled wine’? Because the water supply has been shut by the workmen when I was out shopping, so I’m drinking mulled wine that I bought for Christmas. It’s Polish mulled wine, stronger than local, so I feel a bit tipsy after just one glass. Oh well…